Box-car door



a w. P. MURPHY BOX CAR DOOR Filed March 1. 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

. I V, $93: f4 V I .32 34 s ve/10;.

2 sheets-sheet 2 W. P. MURPHY BOX CAR noon Filed March 1 1920 Fatented @ct. l, 124..

WALTER MURPHY, OF NEW YORK, Y.

BOX-CAR DOOR.

Application filed march 1, 1920. Serial No. 362,243.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER P. MURPHY, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Box- Car Doors, of which the following is'a specification.

My invention relates to an all-metal side door structure for a railway box car, the invention being concerned with the construction of the door-and also with the construction and arrangement of the several instrumentalities whereby the door is supported and guided in its opening and closing movements and whereby the door opening is made proof against the entrance of rain, snow, dust, cinders, and the like, when' the door is closed; the structural peculiarities of the door itself involving certain novel expedients and disposition of parts in the guiding, supporting and weatherproofing means.

The principal object of the invention is to provide an all-metal door structure for a railway box car which will be light, strong, durable, which will provide an effective closure for the door opening, and which will consist of a comparatively few structural elements which may be inexpensively manu factured and assembled.

Fhe invention consists in the new and improved arrangements, devices, constructions and combinations of devices for carrying out the above stated objects and such other incidental objects as will be referred to in the following description of the preferred embodiment of my invention shown in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 shows the door, and adjacent parts of the car wall, in side elevation.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional plan, on a larger scale, taken on line 2-2 of Fig 1.

ig. 3 is a vertical sectional view, also on a larger scale, taken on line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view, in perspec tive, of'the upper part of the door with the means on the car for guiding same.

Fig. 5 is a view, in perspective, of the lower portion of the door, and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary View, in elevation, of the upper forward corner of the door and associated parts of the car. Like characters of reference designate like this place.

parts in the several figures of the drawings. The parts of the door structure, and the adjacent portions of the car body, are designated in the drawings as follows: 10 is the side sheathing of the car, 11 the side plate, 12 the side sill, 13 the flooring and 14, 15 the forward and rear door posts at opposite sides of the door opening; the terms forward and rear as applied to the door posts having reference to the direction of movement of the door when open and closed, the front edge of the door being moved over against the forward post 14 when the door is closed and in the other direction toward the rear post 15 when the'door is opened.

The door consists preferably of a plurality of sheet metal panels or plates, three plates l6, 17-and 18 being shown, which are overlapped and riveted, or otherwise secured together at their meeting edges, and which are formed with a plurality of rigidifying cor-. rugations 19 preferably horizontally disposed and terminating close to but within the side margins of the door. The door is supported from the bottom and is merely guided at its upper edge, by means, however, which become effective to support the door in case the bottom supports should fail. These bottom supports consist of a number of brackets 20 in which are mounted rollers 21. Secured to the lower edge of the door is an angle bar 22, one flange 23 of which lies flatwise' and is secured to the outer face of the door and with its edge aligned with the lower edge of the door, the other flange 24 projecting outwardly to provide a track for sugporting the door on rollers 21.

ecured to the forward door post 14 is a Z-bar stop and weatherproofing stri 25 having a flange 26 spaced from and su stantial- 1y parallel with the side of the car which provides, with the front face of the post, a channel 27 to receive the forward edge of the door. This .edge is reinforced, to give it stiffness and durability, by an angle-bar 28, one flange 29 of which is secured fiatwise to the outer face of the door with its edge aligning with the forward edge thereof, the other flange 30 projecting outwardly so as to cooperate with the flange 26 of the Z-bar 25 to provide a weatherproof construction at It will be understood that the forward edge of a railway box car door should be not only sufficiently rigid to main tain the alignment necessary to allow the door to be closed but should be capable of withstanding the thrust of the door against the stop strip either when the door is closed or from the inertia movements when the train is started and stopped or in switching. The construction above described meets these requirements. The angle bar 28 cooperates with the corrugations of the door panels, which corrugations terminate close to the angle bar, to produce a structure for the front marginal portion of the door which is peculiarly fitted to withstand, without mutilation or deformation, the extremely hard usage to which this part of a railway box car door is subjected under inevitable service conditions.

The rear edge of the door is formed with an inwardly and forwardly turned flange 31 which is adapted to engage with the outwardly and rearwardly turned web 32 of an angle bar 33 secured to the rear door post 15, this arrangement providing for the weatherproofing of the door on this side and giving the door a certain amount of rigidity which, however, is preferably increased by securing to the front face of the door, along its rear edge, an angle bar 34.

A box car door may be subjected from the inside to thrusts or pressure of the lading which the door and its attachments must be strong and rigid enough to withstand without breakage or undue deflection. In the structure as above described the forward and back edges of the door, in the event of a pressureagainstthe inside of the door, will beer for their whole length against the stop and closure strip 25 and the outturned portion oi the back closure strip 33, respectively. The corrugations 19, under such circumstances, act as beams to transmit the stress a ainst the restrained forward and rear e ges of the door. These corrugations merge one into the other, that is, the sheet metal panels have a sinuous configuration in vertical section, so that a thrust localized against one or more corrugations is distributed to the adjoining corrugations and danger of breakage or permanent deformation of the door minimized. The sinuous confiration of the body of the door, moreover, gives it an elasticity whereby deflection under a cargo thrust, even if considerable, is temporary, involving no permanent set but disappears when the door is relieved of the stress. The corrugations die out near the margins of the plates so that the margins are flat for attachment of the angle bars 28, 3e. llt is matter of convenience to have the forward edge of the door quite thin and flat so as to make a fairly close fit with the stop and closure strip 25,

The upper edge of the door is bent over to form an outwardly projecting flange 35 adapted extend into the recess provided by the channeled portion. of a closure and arness guiding member 37 which is secured to the side plate 11 of the car above the door opening, this member, of course, extending rearwardly of the door opening to a distance equal to the width of the door. A pair of angle bars 38, 38 are secured to the face of the door near each of its upper corners, so as to stand just below the lower inturned flange 39 of guiding element 37. The primary purpose of these angle bars is to prevent the upper edge of the door from being disengaged from the guiding member 37 in case the supporting brackets 20 at the lower edge of the door should be broken ofi'. lUnder such circumstances the flange 35 on the upper edge of the door will engage with the inturned web 39 of the guiding member to support the door from its upper edge. However, in view of the clearance between the flange 39 and the side plate 11 the door could be disengaged from the guide member were it not for the angle bars 38 which prevent the door from being swung out at the bottom far enough to allow such disenag ment. instead of employing two angle are, one at each corner, a ingle bar may be used extending across the door from side to side, but under ordinary circumstances the flange 35 gives the upper edge of the door sufiicient rigidity so that an angle extending all the way across the door is not required for the purpose of reinforcement. Preferably the angle bar 22 along the bottom edge of the door is rigidly connected with the angle bar 34: at the rear edge by means of an angular gusset plate 4:0. A. similar gusset plate ll connects the angle bar 24; with the angle bar 28 on the forward edge of the door. lhe angle bar 3% on the rear edge of the door is connected by gusset 42 with the angle 38, and the angle bar 28 on the forward edge of the door is connected with the angle 38 by a gusset as. The gussets 40, all, 422, 4:3 unify what might be termed the rigiditying frame structure of the door.

The Z-bar stop and weatherproofing strip 25 on the forward door post 14 does not ex tend quite to the top of the door opening, and similarly the guide member 37 above the door opening falls short of the front edge thereof. These two elements are connected by a housing 4 into which the forward up iper corner of the door projects when door is closed, as shown in Fig. 1,- Fig. 3 showing the stop strip, guide member connecting housing broken away for the purpose of illustrating the constmction, of the door at this place.

lhe door may be fastened in its closed position by any suitable means. I have shown a locking device 45 engaging the forward edge of the door with the stop strip 25. This device forms no part of my invention and will not detailed de= seriptionl While the plates 16, 17 and 18 forming the body of the door may be made of the same thickness of metal, I prefer to lighten the structure by making the upper plate 16 (the same might be done with plate 17 of thinner metal than the lower plate 18; The lower portion of the door is liable to shocks and pressures of shifting cargoes to a greater extent than the upper part of the door.

I claim:

1. In combination with a railway oar having a door supporting means below the opening; of a sheet metal door the upper edge of which is bent to form an outturned flange, a guide member above the door opening having a horizontally disposed channel portion, open toward the side of the car, into which the outturned flange on the door projects, and angle bars at the corners of the door just below said guide member, for the purpose described.

2. In combination with a railway car having a door opening, of a plurality of brackets having rollers arranged below the door opening on the outside of the car, a sheet metal door provided on its outer face and at its lower edge with an angle bar having one flange lying flatwise on the door and the other web projecting from the lower edge of the door for supporting said door on said rollers and reinforcing its lower edge.

3. In combination with a railway car having a door opening, and spaced supporting elements for the door below said door opening; of a sheet metal door the upper edge of which is bent to form an outturned flange and the rear edge of which is bent to form an inturned flange, and angle bars at the forward. bottom and rear edges, respectively, of the door secured to the front face of the door with one flange, in each case, outstanding therefrom, and angular members at the lower corners of the door securing the angle bar at the bottom of the door to those at the forward and rear edges thereof; the angle at the lower edge of the door being adapted to bear upon said spaced supporting elements.

4. In combination with a car having a door opening and door posts; of a guiding member above the car opening having a channeled portion which opens toward the side'of the car; a Z-bar' stop and closure strip at the forward edge of the door opening, one flange of which ,lies parallel with and spaced from the front face of the door post; a closure strip at the rear edge of the door opening having an outwardly and rearwardly projecting flange; a plurality of supporting brackets on the side of the car below the door opening; and a sheet metal door formed with a plurality of longitudinally disposed corrugations which terminate within the edges of the door and merge one into another, and provided with angle bars having outstanding flanges secured to the outer face of the door along its lower, forward and rear edges and with angle bars secured to the upper part of the door just below said guiding members, the rear edge of the door being bent to form a flange engaging the outwardly and rearwardly projecting flange on the rear closure strip and the upper edge of the door being bent to provide a flange to project into the channeled part of the guide member.

WALTER P. MURPHY. 

